The Battle of Cedar Creek

The Battle of Cedar Creek was fought on October 19, 1864, the last major battle in the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War.

After the Third Battle of Winchester and the Battle of Fisher's Hill the Federals felt that the Confederate threat in the Shenandoah Valley had been ended. Northern troops went into camp near Middletown while their commander, Major General Philip Sheridan, left to confer with the high command about what to do next.

But Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal Early had other ideas. Shielded by a dense morning fog, he launched a surprise dawn attack that scattered Union defenders. The battle seemed won by early afternoon as the exhausted and hungry Southern attackers ran out of steam and ransacked the captured Union camps for food and useful items.

But as the battered Union forces still on the field prepared to fall back Sheridan rode in from the north, rallying troops as he came. By afternoon he reorganized the army and launched a crushing counterattack. It completely routed Early's men, eliminating his army as a major threat in the Shenandoah Valley for the rest of the Civil War.

Today much of the battlefield is private land, but a partnership of organizations is working to preserve important parts of the field and interpret them for future generations. Four monuments and a series of markers tell a small part of one of the most important battles of the Civil War.

Visit the Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historic Park website.